Every day at 7 pm, psychological illusionist Karan Singh is all set to present a lineup of tricks that leave his audience on Zoom wondering with awe. Performing for a group of friends in one of his shows in May, he breaks the ice with some light-hearted chatter before asking one participant to name any card from the hidden deck. Nonchalantly, Singh reveals the same card — Jack of Spades — that had been placed on the top of the deck before the start of the show itself. The enthusiastic bunch of friends can’t stop giggling at this exact match and wonder how he did it. What follows is a 15-20 minute virtual interactive session replete with card tricks, mind reading and magic which makes the group gasp in disbelief as the tricks accurately reflect their thoughts.During Covid’s lethal second wave, Singh’s direct messages on social media were flooded with requests from those frantically looking for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines and other essentials. Feeling the sheer helplessness, he sent out a message asking everyone to donate to a charity of their choice for Covid relief.In return, Singh would do a show for them after receiving a screenshot of the amount donated for the cause. “Within the first hour itself, we received around 600-700 mails from those who had donated. Out of them, I picked a list of 20 mails randomly and did one show every day for families or groups of friends in May. It has just been very heartening to hear people’s stories – everyone is going through a lot. I decided I would make people smile via such shows, while also raising amounts for Covid relief,” highlights Singh, who goes by the stage name ‘Karan Singh Magic,’ and has done shows for celebrities like Virat Kohli, Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan in the past.Like him, a bunch of entertainers have come forward this time to dispel the gloom and doom in the wake of the infectious second wave. Think stand-up comedians, dancers, singers, beatboxers et al — a slew of artists have been performing tirelessly for Covid patients, frontline workers and the public with an effort to raise funds amid one of the deadliest outbreaks in the country.Laughter to the rescueWhen stand-up comedian Vir Das first announced in April that he would do online shows on the weekend to raise money for Covid relief charities, tickets sold out in the first nine minutes. While his first show was intended to help the NGO Doctors for You supply medicines, beds and oxygen, the second show raised money for Mumbai’s dabbawalas affected by the pandemic. “I promise you a full show, a wonderful laugh and that your money will be put to good use. We will also be giving free access to any healthcare worker who feels like a laugh,” Das had stated in his Instagram post in April.He followed this up with more such stand up gigs for various charities in the weeks that went by and ended up raising Rs 30 lakh for Covid relief. 83532046Stand-up comedian Amit Tandon also sent a post out on social media in April asking those who had been Covid positive and stuck alone to reach out. Seeing the overwhelming response, Tandon ended up doing 20 such ‘talk positive sessions’ of 45 minutes each for Covid patients and doctors. “I received 2000 emails in the first 4-5 days, which left us wondering how we should space it out. So the first few weeks were fairly challenging. In a lot of sessions, I hardly spoke as people wanted to talk their heart out and were just so happy to have a two-way communication going,” he recalls.The sessions, with 25-30 people each, saw many joining in from hospitals, homes and even some who found themselves stuck in Maldives after catching the virus. Tandon admits that though the sessions made him feel happy, it was also an emotionally exhausting experience. “My focus has been to keep it light. But sometimes it would get tough to create a lighter moment in situations where people joined in from hospitals and weren’t keeping very well. I switched off for three days in between and then got back to it again later,” he candidly states.With Shridhar Venkataramana, the decision to do a stand-up event to raise funds came up in May when he was approached by Happiness Coach Pooja Khera for Hemkunt Foundation. Venkataramana, who cracked up the audience with jokes on Work from Home, CoWIN and cryptocurrency fluctuations, saw this as a way to make more people fight the pandemic. “One way to deal with adversity is to laugh at it. With so much negativity going on, I thought it would be great to offer people some respite and make them laugh. Moreover, the severity of the situation was much bigger this time when even basics such as oxygen became scarce. This made me feel like contributing in a greater way than what I did last year,” he explains.Dance therapyHis thoughts are reflected in the way choreographer Kalpita Kachroo felt after seeing the immense suffering all around. Kachroo, a classically trained Kathak dancer, conducted two fundraising workshops with 100-150 students each in April. She saw a host of new and older students join in this time, including those who had never joined such dance classes earlier. “I have done a lot of beginner classes during this time. Earlier I was only focused on the specific aspects of choreography, but now I have learnt the importance of slowing down. In the two hour classes, 30-45 minutes would be dedicated to relaxation and improvisation techniques. I chose a lot of slow and healing numbers for the workshops and could feel the energy build up even on Zoom,” she reminisces. Kachroo plans to take her learning forward by pursuing dance movement therapy as a Master’s course in London, for which she applied in January this year. “The pandemic and the impact it had really affected me. I have seen a lot of my relatives and friends suffer during this time. This course will teach me more about movements in dance for healing purposes,” she adds. 83531240Other professional dancers such as Ram Pradeep, whose stage name is ‘Donny’, gauged the interest of the audience first by doing an Instagram Live free class and putting the word out. Following this, he received a lot of messages from foundations to raise funds for children affected during Covid. “It just took off from that point and we raised around Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 for the cause. I will do more such dance workshops in June,” highlights the artist who saw a lot of fellow dancers affected by Covid, fallout of cash flows and dance studios being shut in this period.Pradeep fondly recalls that the sessions also saw many people come forward who weren’t dancers. “Some just wanted to sit and watch everyone dance. I kept it casual and everyone enjoyed the music. These were 1.5 hour sessions which became a mix of therapy, taking a breather and adding smiles and goofy conversations to their day,” he says.All in it togetherSome organisations that were started during the lockdown in 2020 such as beatboxing community BeatsForRelief raised Rs 40,000 last year by hosting a crowdfunding campaign to help arrange food kits for the underprivileged. The community has planned a large-scale event from June to July this year as well to contribute towards minimising the oxygen shortage crisis in the country. “We aim to keep supporting nonprofit organisations in Covid-relief efforts and will organise beatboxing tournaments that will be of help in these times. Such efforts are the need of the hour,” says Krish Rai, Founder, BeatsForRelief. The quest to do something that could help in the current environment also got individuals such as Pooja Khera, a happiness coach and tarot reader, to start ‘The Togetherness Project’ which collaborated with various comedians and musicians to raise funds. The 15 day project started on May 15 and saw a host of artists come forward who performed pro bono. All proceeds would be used by Hemkunt Foundation for supplying oxygen cylinders and concentrators to Covid patients. “The biggest scarcity was the lack of oxygen supply this time. I wanted our efforts to help in lessening this acute shortage. I think a lot of us have realised at this point that unless humanity comes together, this won’t get any better. This initiative was an effort to give people the opportunity to forget the gloom and smile,” says Khera, whose project ended up raising Rs 1 lakh in the first week itself.Bismil, a singer who performed for the initiative, says that he liked the idea of helping people by virtue of one’s talent. Though he did shows last year as well for the purpose, he says the situation this time felt ‘heavier’ in many ways. “I saw a lot of helplessness among people and was very depressed to see the situation. It hit me hard, and I wanted to do whatever was possible for me to help,” he says reflectively.The singer chose soothing songs and Sufi numbers which struck a chord among the audience. “Music can heal everything. More artists should come forward and help heal people,” he avers. 83531383Entertainers and artists may be going through a resource crunch themselves because of the pandemic, but they are leaving no stone unturned in offering succour to those in dire need of it. Such continual efforts have played a dual role in lifting people’s spirits as well as creating hope and happiness among Covid infected patients and families. And the one aspect that is clear enough in this time is how we are all interconnected. “If we have to soothe the environment, everyone has to come together to make it possible. My efforts are just a drop in the ocean and the only way things will get better is if everyone joins in to make that a reality. The world needs more magic right now,” quips Singh.